Dive Review of Aggressor Fleet in
Costa Rica/Cocos Island

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Aggressor Fleet: "Diving was great, live aboard was a big disappointment", May, 2022, by Steven Damsky, NY, US ( Reviewer 5 reports with 5 Helpful votes). Report 11917 has 3 Helpful votes.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	I have used Aggressor many times, but noticed a real decline in value and quality. And should have gone with Undersea Hunter, except they were private chartered for National Geographic during my vacation window. This is an expensive trip to begin with at almost $7k per person, so you wouldn’t expect to be nickeled and dimed on top of that. In addition to the cost of an overnight hotel, There was a last minute per person $250 fuel surcharge, extra for nitrox which was a requirement, and another $1000 in park fees. All in, excluding Airfare it was a little over $10k per diver. I understand that a live aboard is not a 5 star hotel, but honestly the Okeanos I, has seen better days and is in need of a major refit. The cabins look like they haven’t been updated in decades, much smaller than I am used to, and at 6’ tall, I could not stand upright anywhere inside. There was an overall water pressure problem and the showers and toilets didn’t consistently work. Now for that kind of money you would expect that the food and yacht experience would be better than the 1 star that was provided. Food was bland, basic and forgettable. There were no rinse tanks for equipment other than cameras, only one of the on deck showers worked, with minimal water pressure. The crew, with one or two exceptions, was indifferent and seemed more interested in entertaining themselves rather than attending to the guests. As for the diving, I was fairly satisfied considering it was the start of the rainy season and the beginning of the annual Shark migration. However we were not disappointed as we saw lots of scalloped hammerheads, white tipped reef sharks, and Galapagos sharks. We even saw a few tigers and silkies. Saw a lot of Marble and eagle rays, with a few mantas and devil rays thrown in. There was a bit of false advertising as we only did 3 dives a day, not the advertised 4, but I guess they get away with that by saying “up to” 4 dives. But considering the nitrox fee is the same when diving 5 times a day in the Caribbean, I think it is a 40% ripoff My one big problem was that since this was group diving, deep (around 100’ on every dive) and in very strong current, Aggressor should never have allowed inexperienced divers on the boat. There was 1 person with only 40 dives, and 3 others with less than 100, none of whom had any deep experience or certifications beyond open water, including Nitrox. So within the first two days we had 1 case of DCS, and two who got swept by the current and had to be rescued and a fourth who panicked and caused one dive to be abandoned after 10 min. As a result, until we all complained, the dive masters wouldn’t take us to the more difficult sites where the large pellagics were more common, because we were limited by the 4 inexperienced divers. All in all, I believe that the Crew of the Okeanos 1 and Aggressor in general, seem to have the “we are the only game in town” attitude and it showed. I doubt I will ever use them again
Websites	Aggressor Fleet [same]
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Belize, Roatan, Turks & Caicos, Florida Keys, Red Sea, Kona Hawaii, Cocos Island CR
Closest Airport	SJO	Getting There	Arrive day before, then 36-40 hours by boat
Dive Conditions
Weather	windy, rainy	Seas	calm, choppy, surge
Water Temp	75-82°F / 24-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	15-20 Ft/ 5-6 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Due to hazards, all dives were group drift dives
Liveaboard?	yes	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	1 or 2
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	1 or 2
Turtles	None	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals	N/A	Tropical Fish	N/A
Small Critters	N/A	Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	To many crew and divers were using the camera rinse tanks for masks and wetsuits, so I had to hand rinse all my equipment.

Report currently has 3 Helpful votes

Subscriber's Comments

By Mary McCombie in CT, US at May 19, 2022 17:25 EST

My second trip to Cocos was on this boat and we found it crummy. Sounds like it only got worse!

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Dive Review of Aggressor Fleet in Costa Rica/Cocos Island

Aggressor Fleet: "Diving was great, live aboard was a big disappointment", May, 2022,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subscriber's Comments

Dive Review of Aggressor Fleet in
Costa Rica/Cocos Island